Manhattan Apartments Linger on the Market

Manhattan’s army of beleaguered renters may be feeling a bit of schadenfreude this morning with the release of two new reports showing that the once invincible real estate market will be facing price declines in the coming year.

975 Park Avenue, No. 14A. Courtesy of Warburg Realty.

The inventory of homes for sale in Manhattan was up 39% in the fourth quarter, from the same period in 2007 according to the report from Prudential Douglas Elliman, one of the city’s largest residential real estate firms. Real estate brokers said the Manhattan market slowed sharply in mid-September, when credit markets seized and Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy. Since then, inventory has soared as buyers have become more selective and are more willing to wait for a good deal, reports Nick Timiraos in the WSJ today. (See “Manhattan’s Sterling Real-Estate Market Begins to Tarnish“)

Apartment resales in the city have seen a dramatic drop-off in price, according to Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers, which co-authored Prudential’s report. The median price for re-sale apartments, which excludes new development, fell by 3.6% in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2007. By comparison, apartments sold in the fourth quarter in 2007 went for nearly 20% more than that in the same period in 2006. (See chart, right)

Quarter

Change

1Q 07

3.8%

2Q 07

6.9%

3Q 07

13.1%

4Q 07

19.7%

1Q 08

26.3%

2Q 08

32.2%

3Q 08

5.2%

4Q 08

-3.6%

Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers

We poked around StreetEasy.com, looking for apartments that were lingering on the market and found no shortage. Here’s a sampling: